Pasta lunch and sanbaizu recipe

Morning prep time: 3 minutes. These were all leftovers, and I pre-packed the pasta the day before for speedy morning prep.

Sanbaizu broccoli: broccoli made in the microwave steamer and tossed with a sweet vinegar dressing that I keep on hand for speed (“sanbaizu”, recipe below)

Shell pasta and cheese with tuna fish, green onions, spaghetti sauce and yellow bell pepper (microwaved in a covered dish with a little water, then drained)

Chicken salad

I keep a bottle of homemade sanbaizu dressing in the refrigerator as a quick flavoring for vegetables and throw-together vinegared salads (like thin-sliced cucumber). It’s also excellent with seafood (especially as a dipping sauce for steamed or boiled crab). I brought some along to a Dungeness crab boil a while back, and it was a big hit even among people who don’t care about Japanese food one way or the other.

Sanbaizu (three-flavored vinegar) is one of the four main vinegar dressings in Japanese cuisine, made with rice vinegar, soy sauce, dashi (bonito stock) and sugar. The other vinegar dressings are:

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I eyeball it — pour however many tablespoons of water I need into a small bowl and then sprinkle in a little of the hon dashi granules until it tastes about right. Add to my cooking.

But yes, you absolutely can freeze dashi! Try freezing it in ice cube trays (half filled and fully filled), then dumping all of the cubes into a freezer bag. That way you have dashi in one or two tablespoon increments ready whenever a recipe calls for it. I do this on the occasions that I actually make dashi from scratch, and I always have a stash of homemade chicken stock in the freezer (plus canned stuff downstairs in case I run out).

I love your posts! I found you from the bentolunch community. I have a stupid question about bonito – I have cat treats made of dried, shaved bonito (Kitty Kaviar, and they LOVE it) – is that the exact same thing as the bonito flakes, do you think? Just curious…

Hmm, if all it is is dried, shaved bonito then it should be the same thing as bonito flakes. My old cat used to LOVE bonito flakes — we put it on his food when he got really old to entice him to eat (very fragrant, so it cut through his deteriorating sense of smell).

Thanks Laurie! For the pasta, I microwaved the bell pepper with a little water, drained, and then just stirred everything else in (I may have sauteed the green onions too — sometimes I do, sometimes I don’t). I often doctor mac & cheese with whatever I have on hand (saute a couple of veggies and maybe a protein, add them to the mac & cheese, and stir in some fresh herbs or green onion).

Long story short on the GF front, it turned out that my husband was missing the gene marker. E-mail me at lunchinabox (AT) gmail (DOT) com and I can give you more details.

I made the Sanbaizu this weekend. It was fabulous! Once I made it, my family was putting it on everything (chicken, asparagus, cucumbers). An excellent recipe! Thanks for sharing.
BTW – LOVE your site.

@13 from Laura: Hooray! Glad that worked out for you — it’s very versatile. If you have some ponzu on hand, you can also make the ponzu-sanbaizu vinaigrette I’ve posted about elsewhere on the site — great on regular salads.

I know this is asking a lot, but could you mention if the book is in English or ‘other’ because Amazon doesn’t post what language it is in… You said…
“Recipes adapted from Quick & Easy Japanese Cuisine for Everyone, Yukiko Moriyama.” But afraid to test book since I only read english & some spanish…